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Dian Stanchev
Why Chelsea didn’t deserve to win the Champions League
The 2011/12 season in the Champions League is now over. Chelsea are the winners, but the question is- did they really deserve to be?
People say that once someone has achieved something, it shouldn’t be questioned by others. Nothing personal against anyone, but this is exactly what I’m going to do now; and I‘ll tell you why I think Chelsea didn’t deserve to win the Champions Cup.
Going back to the beginning of this season’s tournament, to the group stage to be exact, we remember that Chelsea were drawn in group E alongside Valencia, Leverkusen and Genk. Not the easiest of groups, but it could have been much worse for sure.
Anyway, still managed by Andre Villas-Boas, The Blues won 3 out of their 6 games, drew 2 and lost just one, thus topping their group and progressing to the knockout stages of the competition.
The problem here, at least for me, is that they didn’t win any of their away games. They recorded draws against Valencia and Genk and a loss in Germany to Leverkusen. Still, we have to give them credit for not conceding any goals at Stamford Bridge in their 3 home matches. To make it even more spectacular, they scored 11 in these games.
So far, so good! Then came the Round of 16, where they faced Napoli from Italy. After they lost the first leg away by 3-1, it seemed as if there is no chance of them going any further.
By that time the second leg was to be played, owner Roman Abramovich had had enough of AVB and had replaced him with Roberto Di Matteo. And somehow Chelsea won at home yet again, 4-1 after extra time, against a surprisingly lacklustre Napoli side.
Then lady luck smiled once again at The Blues, as they were drawn against Benfica in the quarter finals of the Champions League. They won in Portugal 1-0, which is their only away victory in the competition for this season, before winning the return match as well, this time 2-1.
At the semi finals it should have been over for Chelsea, the dream should have ended. But it didn’t! They clashed with Barcelona and surprisingly came out as winners yet again. 1-0 at home in the first game, 2-2 at Nou Camp a week later!
In reality, it should have been a totally different story. Just some statistics from the two games: 36 goal attempts to Barca, 11 to Chelsea; 18 corners for the Spaniards, 2 for the English side; I’m not going to even mention the possession stats over the two legs, because I don’t want to humiliate The Blues.
And, in the end, we all saw what happened during the final. Bayern dominated the game from start till end, had four times as many chances on goal, but somehow still lost.
There you have it, Chelsea’s season in the Champions League summed up in a page. Now we can concentrate on the reasons why they shouldn’t have won the trophy.
Reason №1 is that they didn’t show permanent class and form, they were very unstable in their away games (1 win out of 6), and it was pure luck that saved them on many occasions.
Which leads us to Reason №2, which is the negative tactics employed by Di Matteo, especially in the two matches against Barcelona and in the final against Bayern. If you can’t defeat your opponents by playing attacking and attractive football, you’re just not good enough. I’m so sorry, but defending like beavers (hi Chris Kamara) for three games in a row just isn’t serious. The Blues were completely outclassed during both legs against Barca, as well as during the final. They didn’t control the ball, they didn’t create enough chances, they played in a way that was modern 50 years ago, they played as if they’re a small team from Malta or San Marino trying to achieve a respectable defeat against much stronger opposition.
I know that some would argue that this is the only way to beat Barcelona, but other teams proved that this isn’t the case, and they did it this season as well. But OK, they were afraid of Barcelona, which is completely normal, so even if I could forgive them for playing in such a way, why did they do it against Bayern Munich as well? Sure, the Bavarians are a very solid team, but their style of play is not even close to the one Barcelona employs. So I’m sorry Mr. Di Matteo, I know you’re Italian, but the Catenaccio was modern in the 50’s and 60’s of the last century. Today everyone tries to play what many people like calling ‘sexy football’, and Chelsea’s style was nowhere near sexy.
If this isn’t enough, I have some more arguments against Chelsea. Reason №3 is Didier Drogba, and his actions against Barcelona. Everyone keeps going on about how the Barca and Real Madrid players are divers- well, just watch the game again and see what Drogba was doing. Seriously, I’ve never seen so much diving in my life, not even in a swimming pool…
Reason №4 is the fact, that there is only one first team player to have come through the club’s youth system, and this is John Terry, although he first started at West Ham. All other players were bought from somewhere else at some point. Over the last ten years there has been just another team in the same situation, if not worse- Inter in 2010, as they didn’t have a single player to have come through their youth ranks and who was a leading star for the club at that time.
Reason №5 is the owner himself- Roman Abramovich. The Russian billionaire is the perfect example of how a club shouldn’t be run. Spending huge amounts of money on new players, constantly changing managers, clearly not investing enough in the youth academies…I mean, come on, the most promising player to have come out of the club’s youth ranks recently is Josh McEachran, and that says enough. Di Matteo won the FA Cup and the Champions League for a bit over two months in charge, and he’ll probably be fired. Does such a club with such an owner deserve success? No, I don’t think so.
There you have it- five reasons why Chelsea didn’t deserve to win the Champions League. But no matter what, they did. With a lot of luck on the way, but they managed. It will be interesting to see how things will develop in this club in the near future. Will there be a new manager, and if yes- who? Will they build on this success, which players will leave and which will be bought? There are a lot of question, but all we can do is wait and see what happens.
Dude, do you even know what you’re saying? Forwards win you matches but defenders win you championships. Defending is as important, (if not more) as attacking because there are two aspects to football, not one as you seem to believe. I think it’s disgraceful that you’ve even written this article. Are you saying barca and madrid don’t spend? PLEASE! Sure they have a good youth set up, but chelsea is getting there. And Josh Mceachran is one if the most promising talents in england right now btw.
Di Matteo’s tactics aren’t ‘negative’, they are a tactically sound. You play football with you’re mind too, basing you’re game on your opponent’s ability.
It isn’t Chelsea’s fault Napoli were lacklustre, or barca ran out of ideas, every team plays to its strengths and if you emerge a champion at the end of it without the help of a referee, you deserve it. Only those without any respect for the tournament try to disgrace the champions. Enough said.
Great response, LIKE IT!
Does anyone honestly care that Chelsea won? I mean good for them and they took their chances when they had them, but anyone can put 10 players behind the ball, kick the ball all the way up the field, and wait for a lucky break or something along those lines. Sometimes the best team doesn’t win and that’s what happened. I give Chelsea credit, but they are no where close to being the best team in Europe.
Very intelligent and accurate assessment of chelsea winning champions league. In hindsight I wish we would have scene Munich vs Barcelona since that would have actually been a match worth watching. Chelsea winning in the way they did plus coming sixth in England just proves they were not on the same level as Munich, Barcelona and Madrid. I remember in 2002 everyone booed Germany for playing boring (even the media) I think Chelsea should be viewed and booed the same now if we are to be consistent and not biased.
chelsea beat napoli 4-1 after losing 3-1. chelsea beat barca, and then draw 2goal down and 1man down. chelsea played and won the final in munich against bayern, in their own stadium, all red. what the hell means “they didnt deserve to win”. they just were underdogs but they won. inter won it playing in defence and they definitely wernt the best team in europe, but because of mourinho nobody said it wasnt deserved. too biased article.
Totally agree with Cioccio. The article does not recognise the injustices dealt to us in the past. This article is written by someone with an agenda and some of the other negative stuff is written by anti-Chelsea people.
No-one said this when Utd beat Bayern in 1999 when they were even luckier!
Oh please, just look at what happens to other clubs playing versus Chelsea. 2 offside goals versus Wigan, the Mata goal versus Spurs… and that’s just the very last part of the 2011/12 season.
Where were you in 2008 when Chelsea clearly deserved to win? And when we met Barca in the final and we were clearly cheated of three clear penalties? Your only problems is that the unfavoured team won. Deal with it. Isnt it said Champions win even when they play bad? And think of it, against Bayern we had four worldclass first team players missing,and we had a makeshift defence at the back, its probabbly the weakest Chelsea defence ever; then talking about youth which team would give a 22 year old their debut champions league appearance in a final? Leaving the likes of Torres, malouda, sturridge and essein out? And if Bayern are so good they should have scored their many chances or defended our only chance. And does luck alone make ten men comeback from two goals down at the camp nou? And fine even if Napoli was lackustre we scored an amazing four goal. I dare you to call four goals against Napoli luck, especially with them knowing what was at stake? Grow up and accept that we played like Champions and did what was necessary, against all odds.
I would take the complete opposite view. I said after Chelsea beat Benfica away from home that they can win the Champions League. I’m by no means a Chelsea supporter but away to Benfica and to Barcelona they played the perfect Champions League performance. Defended resolutely, played on the counter attack and most importantly when their chances came they took them, something which Barce and Bayern both failed to do. If you go toe to toe with Barcelona they will pick you off, I doubt that any team outclassed Barcelona when they were defeated. If you look at Bayern too their front line on paper is really impressive, Robben, Ribery, Gomez, Mueller…if you try and go gung-ho Barce style against them you leave yourself exposed. Chelsea probably aren’t the best attacking side in Europe but since that defeat in Naples they have been simply faultless in their approach to winning the trophy, RDM found a system that worked for the players he had and that’s why they won.
Sorry, but he is right. I didn’t realise that a football team consisted of eleven defenders. I thought I was going to watch a football match…instead i was forced to watch the game ‘Defend your Castle’…three times in a row. Chelsea were downright petrified of playing against the mighty Barca and the awesome Bayern. They didn’t deserve to win. Full stop.
I notice this article pointed out that Chelsea “parked the bus” as they call it. Playing an extremely defensive formation against Barcelona. What do you expect Chelsea to do? They had so many players playing with yellow cards and its against Barcelona. Is this article being serious right now? They beat Benfica at home, They beat Barcelona at home..they came back from behind on agg and beat Napoli the way they did. That is called perseverance. Never quitting and playing from the blow of the first whistle to the blow of the last whistle. Oh and did I mention they beat Bayern Munich in MUNICH!! come on…thats the icing on the cake right there.
Ally of course they deserved to win, they played right until the end and kept out 2 of the most attacking sides in European football to lift the trophy. Football isn’t just about being the best attacking team, if it was you wouldn’t get such an immense variation of styles and philosphies, you’d get thousands of teams cloned around the world. Chelsea if they went toe to toe with Barce or Bayern would have lost, they didn’t lose. They used initiative and saw a way to beat those sides and they did it. We can’t all be Barcelona.
dude you have no idea what are you talking about. But thats what makes this win even better fo us, CFC fans. I wish more clubs would have soul and courage this team had through out this season. They are real fighters. Didie, you are trully best player in CFC fans hearts!
Roman? I smell something fishy here
Roman your real name isn’t Nick Winfield by any chance is it?
I am looking forward to Chelsea fans applauding the small teams that come and park the bus at Stamford Bridge this season and nick a result. Thats playing like champions apparently !
Well done Chelsea – respect to you – but come on Chelsea fans – yes you are champions, and you should enjoy it, but you are deluded if you think anyone else believes you are the best team in Europe – you had all the luck of a team with their ‘name on the cup’ and then some.
Looking forward to next season – Premier League is best in the world, and while it may have been good fortune, its fantastic one of our teams won the competition.
course they deserved to win! hate you people that have to put a bad word against any success anyone has! yeah chelsea may have defended a majority of the biggest games! but ffs, come on! barcelona and bayern munich are power houses and apart from taking chances on the counter, were gonna be going into them games with an attitude of stopping players like messi from getting through the back line. chelsea were cheated in previous years! for once we got there and we fully deserved it! the barcelona game was all ours! second leg we owned them and showed we were title contenders! messi missed his chances remember! and we finished ours in the back of the net! plus the equaliser from drogba and the penalty shootout against bayern fully proved, that we had every right to lift that cup! not chelsea supporters i take it! how about you blog about something thats worth it! chelsea are champions and for all them years its rightfully ours! di matteo changed them for the better! CHELSEA!
So, Chelsea Boy, you are blogging in the same vein as the Chelsea team play…very defensively. So, you don’t believe Chelsea are worth blogging about?
The only reason you won was because you played a defensive game against two of the best teams in Europe. The fact that you didn’t even try to start the bus up shows that you can’t even begin to compete with them on an attacking basis.
This, my friend, proves that although you won the Champions League you are by no means the best football team in Europe…only when you compete on a level playing field, so to speak, can you even begin to call yourself contenders for that title
I’m very suprise @ some comments. How can someone sits down & vomit his venom on someone’s possession because he acquired it legally in a way he detaste? See, football is made up of 3 departments (defends dept, midfield dept & attarcks dept). If a team gets more goal attempts than the other, does it mean that the later defended. For goodness sake, how can a side that defended throughout score a goal? Chelsea had 11goals attempts vs barcelona. If chelsea only defended how comes did it score 3 & 1 against barca & bayern. Well, if you think barca & bayern only attack then they shouldn’t have defended when chelsea attempted scoring. Lest i forget, how can a team that only defended in the finals had 45ball possession. Until fifa rules out attarckers & midfielders from defending a goal attempt nobody should condemn a so called defending side
Chelsea fans – remember how do you yourselves remember similar teams – like Greece in 2004 and Steaua Bucherest in 85-86 – who are remembered as an embarrassment to the competition – glossed over in history as anti-football winners – not like the great champions like Brazil, Barcelona, Spain, Man Utd, Liverpool, Madrid, France. Chelsea won the cup, but have won no respect. I believe every true Chelsea fan believes that too. And the owner – didn’t the great Jose get fired for the negative football – for not winning in style ? Hope we have true champions next year- a team that plays football – not one that is scared to play football because they are believe they are not good enough to compete playing the beautiful game.
I disagree Marco, Greece are remembered for a remarkable achievement they certainly aren’t glossed over. If you had it your way Barcelona would win everything. Football is loved because it’s so diverse in it’s approach. Chelsea’s approach was spot on to win the tournament, they had a game plan and it worked. Are they the best attacking side in Europe? No of course they aren’t but look at Man Utd, when they lost to Barce in 09 and 11 they didn’t have a good enough plan to deal with Barcelona’s attacking threat. They deserved to win because they were organised and took their chances when they came.
Look, there are so many people who knows nothing about football. Football is ATTACKING and DEFENDING. GET it right you stupid, just because Chelsea didn’t attack much doesn’t mean that there bad. They defended well, had very few chances and took them all. Taking chances is also a skill in football, and Chelsea is just way better than all of the other teams at taking chances. Therefore CHelsea is the deserved winner.
PLease people, keep this in your head, FOOTBALL IS DEFENDING AND ATTACKING!!!
If Chelsea players had stood still the entire game, some of our friends on this debate would have said ” Chelsea played a fantastic game, fought bravely and STOOD UP TO BAYERN THE ENTIRE MATCH” (sarcastically). This is the sort of play that would perfectly satisfy them (unfortunately). Are Chelsea the Champions of Europe? YES….. If any team where to play Chelsea ryt now then with that same Over-criticised-and-unappreciated-type-of-play they would most certainly win. Which surely translates to Champions in our own regard. When Barca won the title they were praised unendingly for such finesse attacking. Credit Chelsea with finesse determination. JOHN OBI MIKEL best Chelsea player of the night. Lastly someone i know likened ball possesion to class attendance….. it doesnt guarantee exam success….. God bless
All you posting against Chelsea are just bitter because we defied all odds and made our own history. If park a bus was our only tactic, how did we score four goals against Napoli? Or how did we beat Barca at the Bridge? And how did we(with ten men and a makeshift defence featuring Bosingwa as a centre) come from two goals at the campnou? We fought to our strengths and desservedly won
Article Written by a Barça’s fan.
You f*cking pussy!
This is a reminder to anyone who feels chelsea are not the best team in Europe.
UEFA organizes the champions league to gather who is the best team in Europe and i guess their is no other parameter to judge which is the best team in Europe if you know how the European football works.
Now that chelsea has won it , it has started a new era where the defenders will win you the championship. Parking the bus is all together a new tactic which chelsea have successfully worked out pretty well.
Now all you can say but 10 years down the line nobody will remember who were their in the semi or the finals but all that we will remember is that chelsea won the Champions League in 2012.
So accept it and go home and
if you are a Barca fan go tell your team to play fair and not make friends at the UEFA and start playing a game like they should really do with the potential they have and definitely they are mind blowing no doubts over that.
and if you are any other club fan than just go fuck off and post when you win some silver.
……..this is absolutely ridiculous, if you would like football to go to form and for the best team to always win then you should map out all the results and never turn on your tv (i assume rightly or wrongly that you dont attend many matches)….. It is runs like this that add interest to the game and prevent the boredom that ensues when one team dominates!
I constantly spent my half an hour to read this webpage’s posts daily along with a cup of coffee.
they parked the bus
Any football fan except Chelsea fans know they did not deserve to win the champions league. The worst and luckiest side to win it full stop. Drogba,s disgraceful diving disrupted the flow of Napoli, Chelsea and Bayern so frankly he shouldn’t of even been playing in the final. Every decent football fan knows we were robbed of a cracking final between Bayern and barca.. What a end to end footy master class of a match that should of been, instead we got Chelsea … The anti football climax! Hopefully there luck has run out and they end up with no trophies out of a possible 7 this year to further underline Chelsea’s distasteful football.